Presupposition failure — A comedy of errors

Presuppositions of utterances are the pieces of information you convey with an utterance no matter whether your utterance is true or not. We first study presupposition in a very simple framework of updating propositional information, with examples of how presuppositions of complex propositional updates can be calculated. Next we move on to presuppositions and quantification, in the context of a dynamic version of predicate logic, suitably modified to allow for presupposition failure. In both the propositional and the quantificational case, presupposition failure can be viewed as error abortion of procedures. Thus, a dynamic assertion logic which describes the preconditions for error abortion is the suitable tool for analysing presupposition.     

Predictive equation for acquisition of hepatitis B in hospital workers in a general hospital

A cross-sectional study was performed to obtain risk factors for hepatitis B disease, HBsAg carriers and immunised personnel, among 2470 workers in a general hospital in Madrid, Spain. The data obtained were analyzed with multiple logistic regression to obtain beta coefficients for variables. The results of the analysis show that being a nurse or being regularly exposed to blood are the most important risk factors for hepatitis B acquisition. The length of time working at the same job activity was also a risk factor. The resulting beta coefficients allow the construction for a hepatitis non-immunised, HBsAg carrier and immunised HBV status, which can select subjects for a hepatitis B vaccination program.     

Processing of Yttria-Alumina Coated Silicon Nitride Slips by Slip Casting

Si₃N₄powders coated with 6 wt% Y₂O₃and 4 wt% Al₂O₃were prepared by coprecipitation. The resulting powders were dispersed in water at different pH values and with addition of various amounts of ammonium polyacrylate (NH₄PA) to produce 32 vol% slips. The influence of the amount of NH₄PA solution added and pH on the rheological properties of 32 vol% coated Si₃N₄slips were studied. In addition, the sintered density of cast samples was determined and related to the degree of slip dispersion. The adsorption of the NH₄PA on the coated particle surface was rather high and the surface became saturated near 0.86 mg/m²at pH 9.2. High NH₄PA concentrations (1.7–3 wt%) were necessary to obtain well dispersed 32 vol% coated Si₃N₄slips at pH 9.2. The best stabilization was obtained with the addition of 2.3 wt% NH₄PA; in this condition, the viscosity reached a minimum value of 35 mPa.s at 100 s^–1. The slip viscosity increased with increasing pH from 9.2 to 10.2. Slips with low viscosities gave a more dense packing of cast samples and consequently higher sintered density values.     

Generation of Technology-Independent Retargetable Analog Blocks

This paper introduces a complete methodology for retargeting of analog cells to different sets of specifications. This methodology is technology-independent, thus allowing the migration, from one technology to another, of the circuit under retargeting. Careful integration of the device sizing and layout generation tasks via the incorporation of layout constraints during the sizing process allows to generate fully functional designs in a few minutes. The methodology is illustrated via the retargeting of a fully-differential Miller-compensated two-stage operational amplifier for a new set of specifications and two different technological processes.An erratum to this article can be found at     

Expectations about counseling in Yucatán, Mexico: Toward a "Mexican psychology."

Conducted a study of client expectations of psychological services in Yucatán, Mexico, under the sponsorship of a grant from the Organization of American States. The Expectations about Counseling–Brief form (EAC-B) questionnaire was translated and administered to 488 subjects across age, sex, and experience with psychological services. Subsequent analyses supported the reliability and robustness of the Spanish EAC-B, with factor structure similar to the EAC-B in English. Some relation was found among age, sex, prior counseling experience, and expectations about counseling. Implications of these data for future research and comparison with U.S. subjects are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Macroscopic and crystallographic density of solid-state extruded polyethylene

Summary The influence of draw ratio on macroscopic and crystallographic density of polyethylene with different initial morphologies, has been investigated by solid-state extrusion. An initial drop followed by an increase in macroscopic density as a function of draw ratio has been observed. Since precision X-ray measurements of unit cell parameters showed no variation of crystallographic density, it was concluded that plastic deformation of polyethylene upon drawing proceeds with a decrease of the degree of crystallinity. This was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry.     

RasterCalc: Calculus for Operations on Graphics Colour Rasters

An extended model and calculus, called RasterCalc, is presented for operations on discrete graphics rasters, including their colour functions. The operations are separated into two main categories: operations on domains, and operations on colour functions. The operations are further classified as local and remote, depending on the correspondence between destination and source pixels. The new raster element or pixel can be a function of a single element from one or more rasters, a function of a small area from other rasters, or a function of entire rasters. Local operations have their main applications in computer graphics, while remote operations are more oriented towards image processing. A mathematically oriented notation is used to define and represent the operations included. RasterCalc has been implemented as a procedure package in Pascal, to be used on a powerful, yet expensive display. Recently a C version has been completed for a personal colour computer with a special chip for raster operations. The work reported in this paper is partially supplied by the Dutch Technical Sciences Foundation, under project number LWI 14.0130: “Facilities for raster graphics in programming languages”     

Synthesis of sliding-mode controllers for nonlinear systems via extended linearization

In this article, a general synthesis method is proposed for the design of discontinuous feedback strategies leading to asymptotically stabilizing sliding regimes. The method is applicable to the class of nonlinear dynamical systems possessing constant equilibrium points. A family of nonlinear stabilizing sliding manifolds, parametrized by generic desired equilibrium point, is specified on the basis of the extended linearization approach. Some examples including simulations are presented for illustrative purposes. Editor: S. Zak